Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the White House on Thursday night shortly before President Donald Trump was set to accept the Republican nomination on the South Lawn.
The demonstration followed calls on social media for protesters to try disrupt the president’s outdoor speech by making lots of noise. Federal officials erected extra fencing around the White House earlier this week in an apparent bid to keep protesters further away.
Reporters at the protest site described the mood as festive ahead of the speech, and said there was a police presence, but no sign of a large federal response.
Reporters on the South Lawn said they could hear the sound of police sirens, but described the protesters as faintly audible.
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The demonstration followed protests around the country over the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was shot seven times in the back by police Sunday in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He is now paralyzed from the waist down, his father said.
A peaceful demonstration outside the White House earlier this year following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a police officer knelt on his neck for over eight minutes, was brought to a violent end when federal forces used tear gas and physical force to force the protesters away from the White House. After they were cleared out, Trump crossed the emptied street for a photo-op outside a church that had been vandalized the night before.
